Who Watches the Overwatchers: Shadow's Light
by axismundix
Summary: Uni grew up in Overwatch. He played with Brigette. He got into trouble with McCree. He was teased by Phara. Until his Uncle Gabriel did something unthinkable... Now, these past years, he has trained to fight, for if he wants his revenge, he will have to delve into a twilight few know exists. Ready or not. (OC side story in the same setting as my main. As a request)
1. Dawn

15 Years Before Current

"Papa! Papa!" Uni laughed as he charged into the lab. The weapons lab. That should have been locked, to keep out just such an intruder. And the brown haired girl that followed him.

"Uni! We can't be in here!" Brigitte yelled, trying her best to catch the boy. They may have been the same age, but Brigette, like most girls of that age was bigger than Uni was, not that it helped her much at the moment.

"I swear, that boy can get in anywhere," Torbjorn snorted, dropping his miniature arc welder onto the workbench he was using. "Brigette, you are supposed to stay in the family dorms."

Skidding to a halt, the girl fixed her father with a dark glare. It was enough like her mother's that Torbjorn had to fight down a well conditioned flinch. "I _tried_ to stay there! Domma left me alone with the others, Jenn got into the cafeteria somehow and made a horrible mess of the vegetables. Mable was putting toilet paper ends in the toilet and flushing it to see how much would go down before the paper ripped, Ethel smeared Winston's peanut butter all over Echo, and Fareeha and Jesse are trying to get Mary out of the vents again."

Torbjorn stared at his daughter for a long moment, his jaw open. At least until James, Torbjorn's erstwhile apprentice and current partner chuckled, scooping up his son. "I like how Overwatch, the powerful organization, peacekeepers of the world, are about to be brought down by your horde Torb," James grinned at his mentor.

"My papa is bigger than yours!" Uni laughed, crossing his arms over his chest in an arrogant fashion. Broken a bit by being held by the father in question.

"Only taller, little man," James laughed as he ground a good natured fist into his son's head. "Torb is probably one and a half me wide and could break me in half like a toothpick."

"Ah, no," Torbjorn snorted with a small smirk and shake of the head. "Idda have to do it like you were a pencil, at least."

"GODDAMN IT JAMES! The fucking guns jammed again! One of them damned near blew my arm off!" The atmosphere of frivolity evaporated in an instant as the labs doors opened, disgorging Gabriel Reyes, James's brother. "What the hell are these kids doing in a _secret_ weapon's lab?!"

With a shocked start, James dropped his son to the floor, pushing the boy behind himself and toward Brigette. "Get Uni out of here."

Brigette nodded silently as she took Uni's, pulling him widely around Gabriel, like he was some sort of mad dog. She could feel the weight of the soldier's eyes as she stiffened her back, doing her level best to ignore him. It wasn't until the door closed behind them that her facade broke. Her held breath burst out of her as she turned a shaky gaze to Uni. The boy looked about as thrown as she felt.

"I...I don't like when Uncle Gabriel is mad," Uni whispered quietly, as if worried his voice would carry through the reinforced steel walls of the Overwatch post. "He yells...and throws stuff."

Taking a shuddering breath, Brigette glanced over her shoulder at the door. "Papa says that Gabriel doesn't mean it. He only gets like that when something goes wrong and people die. And that he always blames himself."

"It's still scary."

* * *

"Oh, my god, Uni…." Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose as he gave his head a small shake.

"What?" the boy looked back at him with a scowl.

Gabriel hated that look. He looked just like his mother. He wasn't quite as dark as the numbani woman, but he had the same spark, the same….life. And James's oddly green eyes, so bright they almost glowed like a cat's. "You can't use a shotgun one handed."

"You do it!" Uni picked up the training version of Gab's hellfire gun and waved it around erratically. Seemed he had also inherited his mother's habit of talking with her hands.

"Yes, but I am a genetically modified super-soldier," Gab smirked as his hand blurred, snatching the gun from the boy's hands. "You are, however, a ten year old, normal boy."

Uni glared like his mother again for a long moment before snorting. "So, then maybe I should get all supered up. Maybe Brigette would stop taking my dessert….."

With a bark of laughter, Gab ruffled the boy's hair. "Probably not. She's a Lindholm. I expect her to be taking _my_ dessert in a few years. Besides, it means she likes you."

"She does not…."

* * *

"You cheated!" Uni growled as he crossed his arms over his chest. He definitely wasn't pouting.

"C'mon," Brigette snickered, doing her best, and failing, to keep the grin off her face. "It's not my fault I'm the biggest, and the strongest!"

His frown darkening, Uni narrowed his eyes at the girl. "You're only bigger now!" he proclaimed, indignantly. "When I'm bigger I'm going to beat you! Then you'll be sorry!"

Losing her battle, Brigette laughed warmly and clapped an arm around the smaller boy's shoulder, leaning into him, which he definitely didn't like. Definitely. "Sure Uni, tell you what, when you can beat me up, I'll be your little housewife. How's that?"

"Grr…" Uni growled, looking away from her. But not pulling away. Even though he definitely didn't like it. "Fine! I'll hold you to that!"

* * *

"What the hell is wrong with you James?" Gabriel snapped, jabbing a finger into James's chest hard enough to rock the other man back half a step. "I took a chance with you! I put my reputation on the line for you! _This_ is how you repay me?!"

"The hell Gab?" James rubbed where his brother had poked him. "I'm working my ass off here! I didn't get this job because of _you_ anyway! Torbjorn and I have been working on six projects at once, I can't focus on your little pet!" James gestured to the heavy combat shotgun on the table next to the men. It's outer casing was dented inward, the barrel on the side warped. "You are fighting _DoomFist_! Your gear is going to get a little damaged!"

"You have time to work on Jack's stupid...whatever the fuck that is," Gabriel jerked a thumb at a half completed rifle on another table, before gesturing at another rifle, this time with the longer, more delicate barrel of a sniper rifle. "And a fucking magical 'healing' gun?"

With a quiet 'whoosh', the lab's door opened revealing a young man with a battered cowboy hat laughing next to uni. "- then I said, 'Sure, but the horse is probably a better fuck!'"

"Ha! Ha-" Uni laughed loudly for a moment before realizing the two older men staring at them. James had that fatherly glare that kept shifting between the two newcomers, before settling on him. "Oh…"

"Shit…" McCree swallowed as he noticed the slight twitch under Gabriel's right eye.

"I….can't….do….any...more…" Uni huffed, sweat literally pooling underneath him as his arms, shakily, pushed him up.

"Oh come on," Fareeha laughed. Uni kinda liked her laugh. It as warm and honest. And loud. That last part was annoying when it was movie night, but still…. "That was only a hundred! Just fifty more to go! When I was your age and I said that kind of thing, mom would do way worse to me. You're dad is a softie."

Okay….maybe he hated her.

Though it was hard to complain, really. She had been matching him push-up for push-up. With one arm, literally, behind her back. Her dark eyes sparkled with childish glee. She was easily the most competitive person he had ever met. It was like she took life itself as a challenge.

"Fareeha…." he whined. "You're like...eighteen. You do this shi-er...stuff….all the time! You _want_ to work for Overwatch!"

"Of course!" Fareeha laughed again. Okay...he did still like it. "Don't you? I mean, think about it! Travel the world! Right wrongs! Do...Justice!"

"You've been reading those comics again," Uni accused, slowly lowering his knee to the ground, taking some of the pressure of his burning arms.

"Well….maybe," she grinned back with a wink. "Tell you what, you do, say, twenty more with me, and I won't tell anybody that you're looking down my shirt."


	2. All Fall Down

9 Years Before Current

"Who are you?"

"Are you?"

"Are?"

"You?"

"Who are?"

Lena squeezed her eyes shut. It wasn't real. It wasn't happening. Or….it will happen. Did it happen?

"Who? Who? Who?"

Her hands slammed over her ears as she ground her knuckles into her temples. Sometimes pain helped. It gave her something to focus on, helped her stay _now_. Kept her from slipping to _then_ , or even to _maybe_.

Maybe was the worst. Sometimes Maybe became real. Sometimes Maybe was real and not.

"Are you alright?" a voice said. It was… male?

Blinking, Lena slowly lowered hands. She looked up, to one of the windows of the...thing, she was being housed in. There was a boy. Not really that much younger than she was, really. His darker skin stood out against the crackling blue most of her world had become.

"Depends," Lena forced a lopsided grin onto her face. "Are you really there or are you there before?"

"Before?" the boy frowned slightly in confusion.

"Heh, maybe you are standing there ten years ago. Maybe fifty," she shrugged as she gave him a wink. "Besides, I'm pretty sure you aren't supposed to be here either way."

Looking uncomfortable, the boy looked away, confirming her accusation. "Well, no. But they don't let any of us come back here," he half shrugged looking back to her. She was a little impressed by the life she saw in him. "I figured a peek wouldn't hurt."

"Okay, color me impressed," Lena grinned and leaned against the wall, next to the window. "How did you get here, anyway?"

"Air Duct," the boy jerked a thumb over his shoulder, indicating the hanging grate behind him. "It's like the people that designed this place never saw spy movies."

Lena's eyebrows rose as she looked from the duct to the boy. "Can't have been that easy."

"Well, no," he admitted, grinning. "But I don't like to tell my methods."

"Well, then, mister spy, my name is Lena Oxton, pilot extraordinaire!" she gave a small wave of a hand that wasn't there for a moment. "Blast…"

"I'm Uni Reyes. Are you...a hologram? Kinda like Echo?" Uni's head tilted in more curiosity than the fright that Lena had become used to seeing in people. Except Winston. And….

"Wait...Reyes?" Lena stared hard at where her hand should have been, willing it to catch up to her body. "Like Doctor Reyes? Guy who built the Slipstream?"

"Oh! Yeah!" Uni gave a proud look for a moment before he paled. "Oh my god…. You're the pilot!"

Lena gave a small snort as she confirmed she wasn't missing anymore parts. "Well, I'm _a_ pilot. But yeah, I was in the Slipstream. Now I'm...this. Could be worse though. Still don't know where the plane went."

"My dad...he was so upset," Uni put a hand against the glass. "He and Winston worked and worked. He didn't sleep, or eat much."

With a grimace, Lena stared at her transparent feet. She was wearing...elf shoes? "Look, Uni...I don't particularly want to talk, okay? I don't know if I'm going to be here much longer. Hell, I could be here forever. I see things. Places. I'm slowly flying apart and I'm falling, forever. Could you, maybe, beat it?"

"Nope!" Uni smirked, sitting on the floor outside the chamber. "Dad's gonna help you. He always helps people. And Winston is working with him. They are the smartest people in the world!"

Shaking her head, Lena couldn't help but smirk. "Yeah, well, I've seen him fail. And succeed. A bunch of times. I don't have a lot of hopoe at this point, but appreciate the attempt."

Uni tilted his head for a moment before nodding to himself. From a place outside of her view, Uni pulled up a backpack and flipped it open. "I had an idea. How about I read to you. If I read you a story, then when I read it in order, you'll know that your still okay."

She stared at him for a long moment. She swallowed heavily as her knees went weak, slowly lowering herself to the floor. She turned away, putting her back to the glass. "Sure, do what you want kid."

She didn't want him to see her crying.

* * *

6 Years Before Current

"NOOOO!" The cry was heartbreaking. It echoed across the broken concrete and steel. It rose above the cracking of the flames that still burned in pockets. It reached inside those that heard it and crushed their soul. "LET ME GO!"

"Uni! Uni!" Jesse growled, struggling to keep the boy in his grasp. "You can't go in there! It's too dangerous!"

"Jesse, _please_!" Uni begged as he lunged forward again, unable to break the older man's grip. "My father is still in there! He has to be alive! Please, Jesse!"

He almost broke Jesse's grip, almost dove head first into the wreckage of the Swiss headquarters of Overwatch. Almost.

A large hand came down on Uni's shoulder, jerking him up, and back. "Boy!" Reinhardt snapped as he dropped Uni almost two yards from the edge of the ruin. Th hand swung around again, catching Uni on the side of the face. Hard. "We do not have time to babysit you! You cannot help. You would get in the way. Stay here. Hope. Help the injured, like your father would want."

Uni lay on the ground stunned for a moment, before shaking his head. He could taste the blood in his mouth. His lip was split. His teeth bared as he braced to leap to his feet. To strike at the man that was between him and his father.

Until he looked into Reinhardt's eye. The large man only locked his gaze for a moment, then turned away. Uni felt his anger eb as he watched the mighty crusader march to his armor. The huge man, the pillar of Overwatch was nearly as broken as the buildings around them.

And he was right. His father wouldn't want Uni to mindlessly place himself in danger. His father had always told him to _stop_ and to _think_. So...he did.

"Mercy," Uni called to the doctor as he pushed past the stream of people that rushed in and out of the large tent that had become a makeshift triage hospital. "Mercy! I came to help!"

The tall blonde woman glanced over her shoulder to look at him before turning back to her patient, her hands never stopping as she sutured a deep wound on a man's stomach. Uni almost hesitated when he saw her face. Her eyes were dark and haunted, bloodshot from the smoke and tears. Her hair was a mess of debris, blood and soot. But she worked on.

"Fine, Uni," Doctor Zeigler's voice was as raspy as it was exhausted. "Brigette is in the left section," she gestured with her head as she tied off the suture. "Help her with the walking wounded. They shouldn't be in danger, but make sure they get water. Maybe something to eat if they can stomach it."

"What about you?" Uni asked in a low voice as he grabbed a bottle of water from a forgotten table. He waited a moment as she wiped her hands before opening it and shoving it into her grip. "Drink. We need you alive, Mercy."

The doctor made a disgusted face as she looked at the bottle, but too a long drink anyway. "I've always hated that name," she said quietly. "My work has….I...I can't save enough of them!" The blonde woman's hand ground into a fist, crushing the plastic bottle and spilling the water over her hand. She watched mutely as it rolled lines in the blood on her hand. "Get to work Uni. We both have much to do."

* * *

"I don't know what to say, Uni," Brigette sat on the wooden deck next to her best friend. They looked out over the lake that was spread below the Lindholm house. The sun was warm as it shone down on them, cut by occasional biting winds. "I don't know what you are going through."

"I know," Uni nodded ever so slightly. "I'm tired of the pity."

Brigette bit her lip for a moment as she glanced at the boy. It hadn't been more than a month ago that he had been making fun of her for wanting to join Overwatch. They had laughed together. He had been her first kiss. Her first...many things. "Nobody pities you, Uni."

"Yes! They do!" Uni snapped, slamming his fist onto the wood beneath him, turning his dark eyes to her. "All I hear is 'Uni, I'm sorry', and 'Uni, it'll get better'. The worst is 'these things happen'. And I see it in their eyes. Even you!"

"Uni..I don't…." she started, flinching back slightly.

"Shut up!" he snapped again. "Just….shut up." The last he spoke in almost a whisper as his head dropped. "I can't even cry anymore. I...Uncle Gabe...I've been hearing the rumors. They don't think I can hear the whispers. He and Jack. They fought. Something happened, that's what blew up the base."

"I hadn't heard that," Brigette looked down at her hands, clenched tightly in her lap. "I had heard it was Talon."

"Pff," Uni scoffed as he waved a hand. "Talon didn't even need to lift a finger. Overwatch was broken to begin with. Uncle Gabe….Jesse…. _Moira_ …." He spat the last name as if it was a poison. "Blackwatch."

There was nothing to say. Brigette, swallowed as she fought down the helplessness inside her. "What are you going to do?"

"..." Uni frowned as he looked out over the lake. "I don't have anything left. Dad and Uncle Gabe were the only family I had left."

Biting her lip again Brigette glanced at him. "You...you have me?"

"Heh…" Uni actually smiled for a moment as he turned to look at her. "I know. I love you. We've been together for so long….But….." Uni's eyes went dead again as he looked away. "I'm going to join the army, I think. I'm sixteen, but Torbjorn already agreed to sponsor me for early entry."

"WHAT?!" Brigette spun to look at him, shock and mild horror crossing her strong features. "Papa did _what_?!"

"I made him promise not to tell you," Uni chuckled, glancing at her with his eyes, but not seeming willing to face her. "I wasn't going to tell you either. I was going to do that old cliche, you know, leave a note. "I'm going on a journey. Don't look for me'...that kind of shit."

"Oh you...fucker!" Brigette growled as she punched him in the arm. Hard.

"Ah, jesus!" Uni rubbed where she had hit him. She had always been stronger than him. Now, maybe, be would get the chance to change that. Maybe. Maybe he could be somebody his father would be proud of.


End file.
